Solution Partner Views

5 Ways to Create a Great Digital Customer Experience

Kurt Jackson | Thursday, September 28, 2017

Kurt Jackson

Every interaction you have with your customer – even the simplest correspondence – shapes their experience with you. The internet is a vast resource of information, and millennials are taking advantage of it. Before you even communicate with them, they are forming their opinion of you based on your website, company reviews, and social media postings.

It`s clear the traditional methods of corresponding and interacting with your customers and agents no longer satisfy consumer demand and have become outdated. Digitally innovative brands like Amazon have transformed the expectation for customer experience, proving just how much it can influence a company`s ability to skyrocket above their competitors.

Digital customer experience is the new competitive playing field, and these business-to-consumer companies have proven the importance of customer communications.

Here are five ways to create a great digital customer experience:

Understand who your customers are and personalize every interaction. Digital communications should have the same level of personal service that you`d expect in a face-to-face interaction. Addressing customers by name is the standard; consumers expect you anticipate the information they want, sending only what`s relevant. Amazon`s wish list is a perfect example. Amazon lets the buyer know that an item from their wish list is currently on sale which not only encourages the buyer to purchase the item, but then the buyer is more likely to add future items to their wish list since they know Amazon will alert them of the best price.

Deliver clear, relevant communications to your customers with the information they want, when they want it. The digital world creates the expectation of 24/7 communication, along with instant access to information. Customers want the ability to check information anytime, anywhere, as well as have visibility into status updates. Customers typically only want information pushed to them that is relevant. An example of this would be a text from your credit card company alerting you that your payment has posted to your account. By proactively communicating relevant information, you make it easy for customers to do business with you.

Provide customers with delivery options so you can communicate with them through their preferred channels. With the explosion of IoT (internet of things), customers want information accessible through any device – some customers may prefer email while others prefer text updates. Amazon, like many other business-to-consumer companies, provides various options for communication, email, text messages and website to receive order confirmations, shipping confirmations, delivery tracking, discounts or sales. If you are communicating with your customers through their preferred channels, there`s a higher chance of customer engagement and improved customer loyalty.

Move from customer touchpoints to customer journeys. Understanding interactions through your customers` eyes is key to identifying the customer journey. It`s important to appreciate the complete, end-to-end experience customers have with your company from their perspective. It`s easy to focus on individual interactions or touchpoints like billing, onboarding, service calls, etc. However, a customer journey spans across a progression of touchpoints, and it has a clearly defined beginning and end. It`s clear when a buyer goes into their Amazon account that Amazon has taken the time to understand their customers` touchpoints from a holistic approach so they can provide an easy to use buying experience.

Deliver consistency across all interactions and correspondence. All touch points should have a similar look and feel, but this can be challenging with the traditional silo approach many companies have with customer communications. Even though Amazon is a marketplace for multiple retailers, all the interactions and correspondence come from Amazon and have the same look and feel.

Delivering the customer experience your customers expect in today`s digital world is a challenge, but we can all learn from other business to consumer industries like retail on how to delight our customers. This is essential in an environment where customers have growing power.

True digital transformation involves more than just touchpoints or front-end and customer-facing functions—it requires an enterprise-wide approach, including back-end functions. Retailers like Amazon show the importance of taking a holistic approach to customer communications, incorporating all aspects of the customer journey.

Customer communications are more than just individual touchpoints – it`s the foundation for digital transformation and a key competitive advantage.

Kurt Jackson is the EVP, Sales at GhostDraft. He can be reached at kurt.jackson@ghostdraft.com.